Virtual Guidebook to The City of San FranciscoCliff House and Sutro Heights ParkGolden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco California

I remember going to dinner at the Cliff House with my family when I was a kid and admiring the view. Years later, in college in the '60's, I went again and was surprised at how run down it was, and the forgettable food. Since then it has been renovated and the menu upgraded at least twice.

In the late nineteenth century Adolph Sutro rebuilt the original Cliff House as a fantastic seven story gingerbread Victorian, but it burned down a decade later. The current structure harks back to its 1909 replacement, skipping over the tacky versions in between. Sutro's mansion stood on the hill behind, in what is now Sutro Heights Park.